IT'LL ALL WORK OUT IN BOOMLAND

Avestin has been promoting this album for a while now, and when I mentioned it to Tom Ozric he couldn't contain his enthusiasm for it saying it was a 5 star album. So I went into this hopeful but also thinking about how many times i've been disappointed by similar circumstances in the past. Well I was quickly blown away by the sheer power and inventiveness of this trio, nevermind the astonishing guitar work of this teenage prodigy named Keith Cross. The thing is i'm even more impressed by the drumming of Peter Dunston who ranks up near the top of the heap for me as far as favourite drummers go. He's absolutely incredible ! It's hard to believe this band didn't become famous until you read how "Decca Records" held back the distribution of this album purposely out of spite. They had T2's debut album produced by one of their own because they were in a dispute with the band who wanted a really raw sound like when they played live, this is not what the label wanted hence their own producer. Well the band made some compromises and so did the producer. The final result pissed off the label so much they fired their own producer, and many fans who heard T2 live could not find their album for sale anywhere. Ahhh politics. I like the story of when the band played the Marquee Club and John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix were both hanging around backstage. These guys were killer live and there was a huge buzz about them. Unfortunately it all fizzled because of poor sales.The label had won.

"In Circles" opens in a restrained way that sounds so good then it kicks into a higher gear. So impressive. Vocals after 1 1/2 minutes. Why does this remind me of early CAMEL ? The drumming is outstanding as the guitarist rips it up. What an opener ! "J.L.T." opens with strummed guitar as keys and drums join in. Reserved vocals before a minute. Mellotron after 3 1/2 minutes. Nice. "No More White Horses" is a song I knew already because I have in on my LANDBERK "Lonely Land" album. That was the first time I had heard of T2, when it said it was a cover of a T2 song. The sound builds until the guitar is screaming. It settles 2 minutes in with strummed guitar, bass and light drums and starts to build again.These contrasts continue. Check out the guitar solo 5 minutes in and then the blistering attack 7 minutes in as riffs follow. "Morning" is the side long closing track at over 21 minutes. Pure Prog right here as themes are repeated and the tempo and mood shifts throughout. Just an amazing ride that has it all.

We don't see ZowieZiggie offer up too many 5 stars but he did with this one including an opening "Gosh !" which is exactly how I feel about this album.